Ctempmartinez LUCY HOwpd

LUCY v. ZEHMER
Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia
196 Va. 493, 84 S.E.2d 516 (1954)
BUCHANAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court.
This suit was instituted by W. O. Lucy and J. C. Lucy, complainants, against A. H.
Zehmer and Ida S. Zehmer, his wife, defendants, to have specific performance of a contract by
which it was alleged the Zehmers had sold to W. O. Lucy a tract of land owned by A. H.
Zehmer in Dinwiddie county containing 471.6 acres, more or less, known as the Ferguson
farm, for $50,000. J. C. Lucy, the other complainant, is a brother of W. O. Lucy, to whom W.
O. Lucy transferred a half interest in his alleged purchase.
The instrument sought to be enforced was written by A. H. Zehmer on December 20,
1952, in these words: 'We hereby agree to sell to W. O. Lucy the Ferguson Farm complete
for $50,000.00, title satisfactory to buyer,' and signed by the defendants, A. H. Zehmer and
Ida S. Zehmer.
The answer of A. H. Zehmer admitted that at the time mentioned W. O. Lucy offered
him $50,000 cash for the farm, but that he, Zehmer, considered that the offer was made in jest;
that so thinking, and both he and Lucy having had several drinks, he wrote out 'the
memorandum' quoted above and induced his wife to sign it; that he did not deliver the
memorandum to Lucy, but that Lucy picked it up, read it, put it in his pocket, attempted to offer
Zehmer $5 to bind the bargain, which Zehmer refused to accept, and realizing for the first time
that Lucy was serious, Zehmer assured him that he had no intention of selling the farm and that
the whole matter was a joke. Lucy left the premises insisting that he had purchased the farm.
Depositions were taken and the decree appealed from was entered holding that the
complainants had failed to establish their right to specific performance, and dismissing their bill.
The assignment of error is to this action of the court.
* * *
Mr. and Mrs. Zehmer were called by the complainants as adverse witnesses. Zehmer
testified in substance as follows:
He bought this farm more than ten years ago for $11,000. He had had twenty- five
offers, more or less, to buy it, including several from Lucy, who had never offered any specific
sum of money. He had given them all the same answer, that he was not interested in selling it.
On this Saturday night before Christmas it looked like everybody and his brother came by there
to have a drink. He took a good many drinks during the afternoon and had a pint of his own.
When he entered the restaurant around eight-thirty Lucy was there and he could see that he
was 'pretty high.' He said to Lucy, 'Boy, you got some good liquor, drinking, ain't you?' Lucy
then offered him a drink. 'I was already high as a Georgia pine, and didn't have any more
better sense than to pour another great big slug out and gulp it down, and he took one too.'
After they had talked a while Lucy asked whether he still had the Ferguson farm. He
replied that he had not sold it and Lucy said, 'I bet you wouldn't take $50,000.00 for it.'
Zehmer asked him if he would give $50,000 and Lucy said yes. Zehmer replied, 'You haven't
got $50,000 in cash.' Lucy said he did and Zehmer replied that he did not believe it. They
argued 'pro and con for a long time,' mainly about 'whether he had $50,000 in cash that he
could put up right then and buy that farm.'
Finally, said Zehmer, Lucy told him if he didn't believe he had $50,000, 'you sign that
piece of paper here and say you will take $50,000.00 for the farm. ' He, Zehmer, 'just grabbed
the back off of a guest check there' and wrote on the back of it. At that point in his testimony
Zehmer asked to see what he had written to 'see if I recognize my own handwriting.' He
examined the paper and exclaimed, 'Great balls of fire, I got 'Firgerson' for Ferguson. I have
got satisfactory spelled wrong. I don't recognize that writing if I would see it, wouldn't know it
was mine.'
After Zehmer had, as he described it, 'scribbled this thing off,' Lucy said, 'Get your wife
to sign it.' Zehmer walked over to where she was and she at first refused to sign but did so
after he told her that he 'was just needling him [Lucy], and didn't mean a thing in the world, that
I was not selling the farm.' Zehmer then 'took it back over there * * * and I was still looking at
the dern thing. I had the drink right there by my hand, and I reached over to get a drink, and he
said, 'Let me see it.' He reached and picked it up, and when I looked back again he had it in
his pocket and he dropped a five dollar bill over there, and he said, 'Here is five dollars
payment on it.' * * * I said, 'Hell no, that is beer and liquor talking. I am not going to sell you
the farm. I have told you that too many times before.''
* * *
In his testimony Zehmer claimed that he 'was high as a Georgia pine, ' and that the
transaction 'was just a bunch of two doggoned drunks bluffing to see who could talk the biggest
and say the most.' That claim is inconsistent with his attempt to testify in great detail as to what
was said and what was done. It is contradicted by other evidence as to the condition of both
parties, and rendered of no weight by the testimony of his wife that when Lucy left the
restaurant she suggested that Zehmer drive him home. The record is convincing that Zehmer
was not intoxicated to the extent of being unable to comprehend the nature and consequences
of the instrument he executed, and hence that instrument is not to be invalidated on that ground.
17 C.J.S., Contracts, § 133 b., p. 483; Taliaferro v. Emery, 124 Va. 674, 98 S.E. 627. It was
in fact conceded by defendants' counsel in oral argument that under the evidence Zehmer was
2
not too drunk to make a valid contract.
* * *
The evidence is convincing also that Zehmer wrote two agreements, the first one
beginning 'I hereby agree to sell.' Zehmer first said he could not remember about that, then that
'I don't think I wrote but one out. ' Mrs. Zehmer said that what he wrote was 'I hereby agree,'
but that the 'I' was changed to 'We' after that night. The agreement that was written and signed
is in the record and indicates no such change. Neither are the mistakes in spelling that Zehmer
sought to point out readily apparent.
The appearance of the contract, the fact that it was under discussion for forty minutes
or more before it was signed; Lucy's objection to the first draft because it was written in the
singular, and he wanted Mrs. Zehmer to sign it also; the rewriting to meet that objection and the
signing by Mrs. Zehmer; the discussion of what was to be included in the sale, the provision for
the examination of the title, the completeness of the instrument that was executed, the taking
possession of it by Lucy with no request or suggestion by either of the defendants that he give it
back, are facts which furnish persuasive evidence that the execution of the contract was a
serious business transaction rather than a casual, jesting matter as defendants now contend.
On Sunday, the day after the instrument was signed on Saturday night, there was a
social gathering in a home in the town of McKenney at which there were general comments that
the sale had been made. Mrs. Zehmer testified that on that occasion as she passed by a group
of people, including Lucy, who were talking about the transaction, $50,000 was mentioned,
whereupon she stepped up and said, 'Well, with the high-price whiskey you were drinking last
night you should have paid more. That was cheap.' Lucy testified that at that time Zehmer told
him that he did not want to 'stick' him or hold him to the agreement because he, Lucy, was too
tight and didn't know what he was doing, to which Lucy replied that he was not too tight; that
he had been stuck before and was going through with it. Zehmer's version was that he said to
Lucy: 'I am not trying to claim it wasn't a deal on account of the fact the price was too low. If I
had wanted to sell $50,000.00 would be a good price, in fact I think you would get stuck at
$50,000.00.' A disinterested witness testified that what Zehmer said to Lucy was that 'he was
going to let him up off the deal, because he thought he was too tight, didn't know what he was
doing. Lucy said something to the effect that 'I have been stuck before and I will go through
with it.''
If it be assumed, contrary to what we think the evidence shows, that Zehmer was
jesting about selling his farm to Lucy and that the transaction was intended by him to be a joke,
nevertheless the evidence shows that Lucy did not so understand it but considered it to be a
serious business transaction and the contract to be binding on the Zehmers as well as on
himself. The very next day he arranged with his brother to put up half the money and take a
3
half interest in the land. The day after that he employed an attorney to examine the title. The
next night, Tuesday, he was back at Zehmer's place and there Zehmer told him for the first
time, Lucy said, that he wasn't going to sell and he told Zehmer, 'You know you sold that place
fair and square.' After receiving the report from his attorney that the title was good he wrote to
Zehmer that he was ready to close the deal.
Not only did Lucy actually believe, but the evidence shows he was warranted in
believing, that the contract represented a serious business transaction and a good faith sale and
purchase of the farm.
In the field of contracts, as generally elsewhere, 'We must look to the outward
expression of a person as manifesting his intention rather than to his secret and unexpressed
intention. 'The law imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of
his words and acts.'' First Nat. Bank v. Roanoke Oil Co., 169 Va. 99, 114, 192 S.E. 764,
770.
At no time prior to the execution of the contract had Zehmer indicated to Lucy by word
or act that he was not in earnest about selling the farm. They had argued about it and discussed
its terms, as Zehmer admitted, for a long time. Lucy testified that if there was any jesting it was
about paying $50,000 that night. The contract and the evidence show that he was not expected
to pay the money that night. Zehmer said that after the writing was signed he laid it down on
the counter in front of Lucy. Lucy said Zehmer handed it to him. In any event there had been
what appeared to be a good faith offer and a good faith acceptance, followed by the execution
and apparent delivery of a written contract. Both said that Lucy put the writing in his pocket
and then offered Zehmer $5 to seal the bargain. Not until then, even under the defendants'
evidence, was anything said or done to indicate that the matter was a joke. Both of the
Zehmers testified that when Zehmer asked his wife to sign he whispered that it was a joke so
Lucy wouldn't hear and that it was not intended that he should hear.
The mental assent of the parties is not requisite for the formation of a contract. If the
words or other acts of one of the parties have but one reasonable meaning, his undisclosed
intention is immaterial except when an unreasonable meaning which he attaches to his
manifestations is known to the other party. Restatement of the Law of Contracts, Vol. I, § 71,
p. 74.
* * *
An agreement or mutual assent is of course essential to a valid contract but the law
imputes to a person an intention corresponding to the reasonable meaning of his words and
acts. If his words and acts, judged by a reasonable standard, manifest an intention to agree, it
is immaterial what may be the real but unexpressed state of his mind.
4
So a person cannot set up that he was merely jesting when his conduct and words
would warrant a reasonable person in believing that he intended a real agreement, 17 C.J.S.,
Contracts, § 47, p. 390; Clark on Contracts, 4 ed., § 27, at p. 54.
Whether the writing signed by the defendants and now sought to be enforced by the
complainants was the result of a serious offer by Lucy and a serious acceptance by the
defendants, or was a serious offer by Lucy and an acceptance in secret jest by the defendants,
in either event it constituted a binding contract of sale between the parties.
Defendants contend further, however, that even though a contract was made, equity
should decline to enforce it under the circumstances. These circumstances have been set forth
in detail above. They disclose some drinking by the two parties but not to an extent that they
were unable to understand fully what they were doing. There was no fraud, no
misrepresentation, no sharp practice and no dealing between unequal parties. The farm had
been bought for $11,000 and was assessed for taxation at $6,300. The purchase price was
$50,000. Zehmer admitted that it was a good price. * * *
The complainants are entitled to have specific performance of the contracts sued on.
The decree appealed from is therefore reversed and the cause is remanded for the entry of a
proper decree requiring the defendants to perform the contract in accordance with the prayer
of the bill.
Reversed and remanded.
Questions.
1. What are the relevant facts in the case?
2. What does the case hold?
3. What is the essence of Lucy's claim?
4. Why does the court give short shrift to Zehmer's intent to play a joke on Lucy?
Why doesn't Zehmer's state of intoxication matter?
5. Could the case have been decided in Zehmer's favor?
5